Thursday, September 24, 2009

Will this one make it to the finals and be cast in bronze? Only time will tell. I am trying to make one sculpture per week of wax, trying to figure out which will be cast.. Whichever it is, it will definitely be standing. This oen is just too plain, bronze is forever (so to speak), I cannot just cast everything and anything, the piece has to have some meaning behind it and be interesting to look at at the same time. The masks did it for the last one, but what about this time?

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Also, I changed the title of this blog from thebutterflypeople.com to thebutterflypeople.com's blog, because some people (like my dad) thought that this was thebutterflypeople.com and I didnt know that. The website is a separate place, hosted on tripod.com.

Monday, September 21, 2009

My first bronze sculpture is coming along truly at a snails pace, bronze though a very seductive material, actually takes so much work to put into making the smallest changes. I added some more pieces of bronze for hair and have put a little more texture to her by putting fine scratches on her surface. I decided I wanted her to look really forged as opposed to smooth and oh so polished... that will come with the next piece. Im happy she is now after all this time, free sitting as the final sprues were sawed off of her.Here are photos of her, she will hopefully soon be finished off with a patina of sorts which may turn her back to a dark brown color.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Some of the butterfly people have left their boxes. How? Ive got them coated in acrylic to protect them from damage, they are of course stronger than the clay itself but still fragile. Even the butterfly wings are preserved in this substance. This presents a new challenge in packing them, but makes carrying them lighter and finally satisfy the never-ending desire of people to have these figures OUT.

They have a beautiful high gloss surface much like clear glazed ceramics and are smooth to the touch with the colors enhanced.

Today was sort of a sad wake up call for me. I was reminded of the darker side of humanity. Two of my very good friends, one male and the other female were both abused in their childhood, the stories are heart wrenching and the thought of a small defenseless child having to deal with physical and or sexual abuse really bothers me. It made me think about my work and how kinda frivolous it is, perhaps its because I had a relatively (as far as negative events) uneventful upbringing. Most of the pain and suffering I went through was when my mother passed away, I have made commemorative pieces for her, and will do a new one soon, but how much does personal experience influence your art?

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

I sketched out the drawing below to come up with an idea of how I would like the new piece to look, this time since it is my second bronze sculpture, I will know what is coming... for instance I am contemplating the end material which I want to be half textured and half smooth, the only thing is, will this translate into the finished piece since there is such extensive cleaning involved in the final product? The sculpted figure is sort of a sketch herself as she may be re-done as well. Classes at the art students league are back in session, and I begin tomorrow morning, so I gotta go catch some sleep.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

My work is currently undergoing a reevaluation. I cannot yet put together a blog to talk about it though because I haven’t decided to touch upon race and being a minority or whether to just keep it personal and bring up my mother. I may do both, an evaluation of my work and how it relates or doesn’t relate to me the artist/creator. I want to change the “face” of my work. What am I putting out there and why? More to come…